1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to using a decision network to evaluate a Price Plan and an Event rating for rating customer transactions, and, more particularly, to a system that rates and/or discounts Events based on business rules stored in a Price Plan database.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flexible pricing plans are becoming ever more important in satisfying the needs of customers. Conventional pricing plans use simple hierarchical pricing structures, such as usage based pricing. Complex Price Plan structures are not suitable for such hierarchical arrangements. What is needed is a system that supports complex Price Plan structures used to rate Events.
It is an object of the present invention to use decision networks to facilitate complex Price Plan structures used to rate and/or discount Events.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system that supports conditional branching in a Price Plan.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a business with the competitive advantage of creating complex pricing models attractive to the business customers.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a flexible solution for Price Plans that can be used in an environment that requires high performance, such as real time rating of telecommunications Events.
The above objects can be attained by a system that uses decision networks to execute a Price Plan to rate an Event. A plan selection rule set is used to select a Price Plan for the Event and an Algorithm rule set is used to select an Algorithm to rate the Event. Conditions are also evaluated as the rule sets are traversed and include a program that determines if an Event qualifies for the Condition.
These together with other objects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.